Cleveland, if you\u2019re reading this, you already know. The Guardians have won 9-1. They pitched, they hit, they did everything. They play again tomorrow, a chance to win 3 straight. I love you. -Jake<\/p>\n
After their first series win in a month, the Guardians were looking to finally get on a Winning streak by heading to Coors Field. And while some would look at the Rockies and think it\u2019s time to win some easy games, keep in mind that Colorado had won 5 of the 9 matchups over the last 3 years, and the Guardians lost the last series at Coors 2-1 (they did, however, score 13 in their Win).<\/p>\n
On paper, the pitching matchup favored Cleveland. Tanner Gordon has been lit up in Colorado to the tune of a 7.82 ERA, while Cantillo has started to go on a nice streak, with a 3-flat ERA in just 12 August innings. That paper, however, was quickly crumpled up and thrown aggressively at my pile of theoretical papers that don\u2019t matter. As Joey Cantillo was a Wild Man (not a compliment) early and often tonight.<\/p>\n
When Hawaii Joe is on, he\u2019s arguably the most fun pitcher to watch on the staff. And when he\u2019s off, it\u2019s like a teenager going on his first date: awkward early and you know you just gotta end it before it gets really messy, (but I\u2019m still awake at home proud of you for trying!). JC started the game with a 31 pitch 1st inning thanks to 2 Walks and 2 strikeouts (yes K\u2019s are good but these cost him 6 & 7 pitches a piece). One of those walks scored on a grounder up the middle by former Cleveland farmhand Willi Castro.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Joey found a rhythm after the RBI single, putting down 9 straight and getting the pitch count under control. But with 2 outs in the 4th, he ran into trouble and then did so again 2 outs in the 5th, so Vogt pulled the plug after 4.2 IP of 1 run ball. Certainly not what JC the Sunshine Man wanted, but a good night from the \u2018pen made this doable.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, as long as you\u2019re not a crazy overreactive fan, you had a really fun night watching the Guardians lineup. First time thru the order the message was clear: Attack Tanner Gordon early. Kwan had a patient 6 pitch single, but CDL had a 1st pitch pop up and Jose GIDP after 2 pitches. The 2nd wasn\u2019t much better; Adell would leadoff with a single but the next 3 guys went down in 4 total pitches.<\/p>\n
Again. Someone not so cool would panic. After a Bailey pop-up, Petey Halpin Baja Blasted one to tie the game at 1 and the Guardians never looked back.<\/p>\n
And before I get into ~how~ they did that, I just wanted to say I really appreciate the opportunity to write here for all of you. I\u2019ve been a Cleveland sports fan all of my life, and even in some very not-fun times, I always have a lot of fun talking about the Guards. A special thanks to Quincy Wheeler for the opportunity, can\u2019t wait to prove him wrong after he told me I\u2019d never amount to anything (thats what we in the biz call a \u201cjoke\u201d, QW is a great guy, he is not the Principal from Back to The Future).<\/p>\n
One thing you should know about me is that I love lists, especially doing a Top 5 or 10. So to round up the offensive explosion tonight, let\u2019s celebrate with a special Top 5 things I loved watching tonight\u2026<\/p>\n
#5-Jo Adell SMOKING the ball, A LOT;<\/p>\n
Adell had singles that went 106 & 108 off the bat, the second bringing home a run. He\u2019s been a great addition and super fun to watch. THIS writer would not mind giving him some money to stay here (more on that this winter).<\/p>\n
#4-Steven Kwan getting on base, again:<\/p>\n
Boy is it great to have Kwany back. He\u2019s followed up his 1.000+ OPS July with an August over .850 thus far. His OBP since the All Star game has been over .470(!). We got our Leadoff Man back.<\/p>\n
His name should be enough. This Dude is Lightning personified. Swings hard, runs fast, defends well, and has a million dollar Smile at Shortstop (yes, I still think about \u201chim\u201d). The way he flew around 3rd on Bazzana\u2019s single, then followed it up with a full inning of defensive highlights, that\u2019ll make you fall in love with Baseball… I don\u2019t think I have to say much else: I love watching him play ball.<\/p>\n
#2-Bazzana\u2019s Slump Buster;<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a rough stretch for Travis recently. And while some want to write his obituary for his career, I am not one of them. It was really great to see him battle for a 9 pitch AB and deliver a 2 run hit to take the lead. Also, maybe that at bat was a huge weight off his shoulders? Kinda feels like it might\u2019ve broken the door down, as he followed that hit with 3 more. His 2nd 4 Hit game of the year. Take a load off, Travvy!<\/p>\n
#1-Takin Care of Business<\/p>\n
If I had told you that Jose would go hitless and leave 7 on base while Joey would have a 31 pitch 1st inning and not finish the 5th, you\u2019d assume we lost pretty easily. Especially the way this team hasn\u2019t taken advantage of opportunities this year\u2026 But every other starter had a hit. Patty & Petey Homered, The Thunder Down Under, The Jo Show, Get Lowe and King Kwan all reached multiple times and the Bullpen was great. It\u2019s the type of stuff we saw from this team last September. It\u2019s what you just gotta do.<\/p>\n
Takin\u2019 Care of Business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleveland, if you\u2019re reading this, you already know. The Guardians have won 9-1. They pitched, they hit, they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,4882,2565,538,4],"class_list":["post-785154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-guardians","tag-baseball","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-cleveland-guardians-scores-standings","tag-clevelandguardians","tag-guardians","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117137344018546131","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}